A blog by the students of Rhetoric and Composition, section 91, at Penn State University. Fall 2010.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Whole Foods Founder
Is John Mackey an effective rhetor? What criteria are you using to determine his effectiveness? How does he establish ethos, or get his customers to trust him and his store?
John Mackey is only effective as a rhetor if you are naive, like John Beck. (I"m not saying i don't like Whole Foods, I'm all about unprocessed foods). John Mackey is the owner of a corporation, he is a businessman. All of his problems with the media arise because he out steps his roll as a businessman, thinking that he is a lot more important than he really is. He spouts out his political views for the public, his take on Universal Health Care. And, like a true coward, when the public doesn't respond agreeably he feels the need to get defensive and explain his side, almost repenting what he said. He cares way too much about attention and appearance. The journalist writing this piece even said, when Mackey came in for the interview he said, "I will not discuss my sex life." The writer told the readers that he never asked him to or mentioned it. Clearly Mackey is a self-absorbed man. The best possible example that i have is from the first paragraph when the writer tells us readers that Mackey views his store as his child and likewise his all the employees. This is completely backwards. Businessman should not be so vain as to assume every power revolves around them, customers come first and they hold the power in business. By maximizing his owe importance, he is making all the employees and customers less important. Everything revolves around him and his beliefs, whether relevant or not, when everything works out good, then Mackey is amazing. But, when this turn for the worst, Mackey comes up with excuses as to why it is not his fault. He overuses ethos to gain trust from his customers by opening up way too much to the public, and being unprofessional. It kind of backfires because he takes it too far.
John Mackey's business expertise through his career has certainly been one of the aspects of his success. However, I believe that his success has nothing to do with his ability as a rhetor, a skill he lacks. Throughout the article, we catch multiple glimpses of Mackey (or the Mackey we see the magazine portraying him as), who seems to be a man of his beliefs. His idea that people as a whole should eat healthier is something he holds strong to his own beliefs and the ideals of his company, or his “core values.” However, his belief is just his opinion, and while it may be true that people will be sick less often if they eat healthier, there is no possible way that he can force people to actually go through with it. His lack of understanding that people have their own opinions just like he does shows his ineffective judgement both as a rhetor and businessman. He does not have the ability to persuade or reach out to people and explain his thoughts while also respecting theirs, and subsequently comes off more as a greedy corporate leader than anything. Nonetheless, his business has been successful, and he has done that through his first hand experience in the market. He understands trust is important, and this is why he is able to extend the ethos to his customers. He explains that he has gone through diets firsthand and seen their success, showing that the plans he has for his customers is something that he knows will be a success. Along with this, he gives several reasons why healthy food leads to a healthy life, and that his store is ready to provide the next step in helping his customers live that healthy life.
I think Nick Paumgarten is an effective rhetor he blends his piece on John Mackey with both his observations like touring the new eighty thousand square foot store describing in all it’s glory the wonderful food you can buy there already prepared. While still showing the truth behind it like the cardboard under fruit it seem more abundant. That defiantly goes towards his ethos as well as painting a very fair picture of the man by doing a good amount of research and even interviewing him.
I find John Mackey to be very effective in reaching his audience. I found that his strongest assets to being a powerful rhetor are his whimsically sophisticated remarks and his ability to appear as an average Joe kind of person. Personally, his description of being a laid back, righteous, Frisbee tossin’ hippie builds immense amounts of trust and directly supports the goals he tries to achieve. It seems from this article that Mackey works extremely hard to reverse the stigma that public criticisms of Whole Foods as surrounded him with. If he loses the trust of the people, then he losses the power to influence positive change in society and all his revolutionary actions are for naught. The first example of ethos used to validate trust in him and his company is his story about the history of his food awareness enlightenment. I feel that his stumbling upon being a grocer is accurate in helping the reader relate to his progressions and intentions in life. I found it inspiring that a C.E.O. of a major company would risk his career just to display his personal opinions knowing well that his remarks would be broken down and criticized ferociously. I think Whole Foods corporate slip to the “dark side” was inevitable and important. Mackey establishes the idea that healthy eating decisions generally improve your health greatly. The exploitation on Whole Food’s contradictions is necessary in transferring the responsibilities of better eating habits from the business to the consumer so they can make healthier decisions themselves.
John Mackey is only effective as a rhetor if you are naive, like John Beck. (I"m not saying i don't like Whole Foods, I'm all about unprocessed foods). John Mackey is the owner of a corporation, he is a businessman. All of his problems with the media arise because he out steps his roll as a businessman, thinking that he is a lot more important than he really is. He spouts out his political views for the public, his take on Universal Health Care. And, like a true coward, when the public doesn't respond agreeably he feels the need to get defensive and explain his side, almost repenting what he said. He cares way too much about attention and appearance. The journalist writing this piece even said, when Mackey came in for the interview he said, "I will not discuss my sex life." The writer told the readers that he never asked him to or mentioned it. Clearly Mackey is a self-absorbed man. The best possible example that i have is from the first paragraph when the writer tells us readers that Mackey views his store as his child and likewise his all the employees. This is completely backwards. Businessman should not be so vain as to assume every power revolves around them, customers come first and they hold the power in business. By maximizing his owe importance, he is making all the employees and customers less important. Everything revolves around him and his beliefs, whether relevant or not, when everything works out good, then Mackey is amazing. But, when this turn for the worst, Mackey comes up with excuses as to why it is not his fault. He overuses ethos to gain trust from his customers by opening up way too much to the public, and being unprofessional. It kind of backfires because he takes it too far.
ReplyDeleteJohn Mackey's business expertise through his career has certainly been one of the aspects of his success. However, I believe that his success has nothing to do with his ability as a rhetor, a skill he lacks. Throughout the article, we catch multiple glimpses of Mackey (or the Mackey we see the magazine portraying him as), who seems to be a man of his beliefs. His idea that people as a whole should eat healthier is something he holds strong to his own beliefs and the ideals of his company, or his “core values.” However, his belief is just his opinion, and while it may be true that people will be sick less often if they eat healthier, there is no possible way that he can force people to actually go through with it. His lack of understanding that people have their own opinions just like he does shows his ineffective judgement both as a rhetor and businessman. He does not have the ability to persuade or reach out to people and explain his thoughts while also respecting theirs, and subsequently comes off more as a greedy corporate leader than anything.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, his business has been successful, and he has done that through his first hand experience in the market. He understands trust is important, and this is why he is able to extend the ethos to his customers. He explains that he has gone through diets firsthand and seen their success, showing that the plans he has for his customers is something that he knows will be a success. Along with this, he gives several reasons why healthy food leads to a healthy life, and that his store is ready to provide the next step in helping his customers live that healthy life.
I think Nick Paumgarten is an effective rhetor he blends his piece on John Mackey with both his observations like touring the new eighty thousand square foot store describing in all it’s glory the wonderful food you can buy there already prepared. While still showing the truth behind it like the cardboard under fruit it seem more abundant. That defiantly goes towards his ethos as well as painting a very fair picture of the man by doing a good amount of research and even interviewing him.
ReplyDeleteI find John Mackey to be very effective in reaching his audience. I found that his strongest assets to being a powerful rhetor are his whimsically sophisticated remarks and his ability to appear as an average Joe kind of person. Personally, his description of being a laid back, righteous, Frisbee tossin’ hippie builds immense amounts of trust and directly supports the goals he tries to achieve. It seems from this article that Mackey works extremely hard to reverse the stigma that public criticisms of Whole Foods as surrounded him with. If he loses the trust of the people, then he losses the power to influence positive change in society and all his revolutionary actions are for naught. The first example of ethos used to validate trust in him and his company is his story about the history of his food awareness enlightenment. I feel that his stumbling upon being a grocer is accurate in helping the reader relate to his progressions and intentions in life. I found it inspiring that a C.E.O. of a major company would risk his career just to display his personal opinions knowing well that his remarks would be broken down and criticized ferociously. I think Whole Foods corporate slip to the “dark side” was inevitable and important. Mackey establishes the idea that healthy eating decisions generally improve your health greatly. The exploitation on Whole Food’s contradictions is necessary in transferring the responsibilities of better eating habits from the business to the consumer so they can make healthier decisions themselves.
ReplyDelete